I’ve just made a trip north to check out the latest progress on the NH Farmhouse(s) we’ve been working on for the last couple of years, and I’ve come back with photos to share of some of the finished spaces!

Also some absolutely delicious grape jam the homeowners made FROM THEIR OWN GRAPEVINES, which I am not sharing.  They have totally embraced this whole country living thing!

Here I’ll focus on the powder rooms, which were the biggest hit with guests visiting for a recent family wedding.  I know our last post was also a bathroom project…we’ve done a LOT of bathrooms in the last few years :) I promise I’ll move on to some other spaces next!

I adore these clients - they have great taste, and are willing to take risks so they end up with something wonderful instead of going the safe and boring route…that is, after all, why you involve a designer in a project in the first place - to get something unique and special!

These properties are side by side and nearly identical antique farmhouses.  My clients live in one, which we are slowly re-making into their own, and we have been working with them on the renovation of the one next door (pretty much from the studs up) to be used as a guest house.  It welcomed its first guests for the family wedding this fall!

To refresh, this post has some before and progress pics and the plans for some of the bathrooms.

Powder rooms are an excellent place to indulge in flights of fancy for these reasons:

• No one spends long enough in them to tire of dramatic finishes,

• everyone eventually sees them so it’s an opportunity to leave an impression on guests,

• and they are generally small, so less material is needed than in other spaces.

Now these two farmhouse half baths are all finished, and they are truly powder rooms that wow!

Main Farmhouse Powder Room

The powder room in the main house is about as far from the starting point as you can get. I’m sure the original people who renovated this were going for the ever popular ‘modern farmhouse’ look, but it had all the warmth and personality of a gas station restroom.

Here is where we started.

We were keeping the flooring (a gray wood-look tile), and the vanity and countertop - also gray.  Show of hands…anyone else weary of the extreme overuse of gray? It has been the default color for the last decade, thank you HGTV. It is FINALLY waning as the color du jour.

The walls and trim were an uninspiring white.  The mirror was wood but very plain and unrelated to anything else, and the fixtures were chrome and stylistically all over the place…modern/traditional/angular/curvy…

I’ve shared some peeks at the progress before, but it just got the final piece - the window valance with fantastic bright salmon wooden bead trim.

The wallpaper was the starting point for the whole room.  It is fun, colorful, and dramatic.  The charcoal background makes the salmons and teal greens pop, and it has just a hint of metallic for glamour.

To upgrade, we were obviously changing out the disparate fixtures and a warm gold finish was the perfect glamorous accompaniment to the paper.  The lines are simple but consistent.

We painted the battleship gray vanity a bright teal from the wallpaper, and changed the hardware to gold.

Even the ceiling got an upgrade with salmon paint that casts a flattering glow.

The wallpaper lends this room the glamour and sophistication that the riot of paint colors would lack in a different application.

Our first choice of a vaguely bark patterned fabric (the one we shared on IG) for the window valance was unavailable in a reasonable amount of time, so we switched to this classic ticking stripe, which was an excellent substitute, and with the trim? SO PERFECT!

Guest Farmhouse Powder Room

The guest house powder room was also treated to dramatic wallpaper.  The color story throughout this house is a palette of blue and green tones paired with neutrals.

We again started with a wallcovering selection, this time in a dramatic navy colorway. Even though this section of the house was stripped to the studs, this is an oooooold building so walls, floors and ceilings are never perfectly straight - organic patterns are the answer in this situation.

This pretty botanical wall covering inspired the mirror and vanity colors. New knobs for the vanity echo the flower shapes in the paper.

A touch of trending gold in the faucet and lighting adds warmth and charm. The simple, unfussy lines are farmhouse-appropriate but fresh with a little nod toward modern style.

Powder Room Ideas

Some simple ways to add drama that we’ve used in these powder rooms:

• Vivid, patterned wallpaper

• Colorful coordinating paint (on the vanities, and even on the ceiling)

• Fun trim (on window treatment)

• Gilded accents

• Special cabinet hardware

• Decorative mirrors

Other posts you might enjoy:

Choosing the right sink vanity

Easy weekend powder room updates

7 ways to create a powder room with pizzazz